Cablevision CEO Dolan urges workers to email him

A little more than a week after nearly 300 Cablevision technicians in Brooklyn voted to join the Communications Workers of America, CEO James Dolan told employees he was disappointed and urged them to email him with complaints, Crain’s New York Business reported on Wednesday.

Crain’s said the comment was part of a 40-minute speech by Dolan ranging from company goals and new products to his concerns regarding to reasons workers chose to unionize.

“Management’s supposed to do a good job,” Crain’s quoted Dolan as saying in a recording obtained by the publication. “And we’re not supposed to put you in a position where you’d think somebody else can better represent you than yourself.”

Related stories

Dolan went on to say he viewed a union as a layer between the company and its employees that he believed wouldn’t help the company stay competitive.

“I don’t think having a party in between us helps us,” Crain’s quoted Dolan as saying. “I think it hurts us. That’s why I’m disappointed.”

Workers in Brooklyn on Jan. 26 in a secret ballot voted to join the Communications Workers of America, Local 1109 in a union election administered by National Labor Relations Board, overcoming what the union called “a vigorous anti-union campaign led by Cablevision.”

Crain’s said the unionized employees were excluded from the internal company broadcast where Dolan made these comments.

“Cablevision President and CEO James Dolan addressed employees Wednesday to present some of the company’s business strategies and plans going forward for 2012 and beyond, touching on products, customer relationships and employees,” a spokesman said.

Crain’s said Dolan announced plans to centralize the company’s human resources department and promised to visit work sites and stay more in touch with workers’ concerns.

“Remember this,” Crain’s quoted Dolan as saying as he gave out his email address. “You may write me, email me. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to be able to email back everyone that does that. But I will make sure every concern that gets emailed to me gets handled professionally, and of course without any fear of reprisals.”

Cablevision’s 282 cable technicians and dispatchers in Brooklyn, who are predominantly African American and Caribbean, are the first to unionize at the company.

“I’ve waited 13 years for this,” Cablevision technician Clarence Adams is quoted on the union website as saying. “United, as members of Communications Workers of America, we now have the power to negotiate a fair contract that will give us the dignity and respect on the job we deserve.”

The union said Cablevision workers are “subject to arbitrary discipline and favoritism by managers,” have inadequate health-care coverage and “insufficient 401(k) retirement plans.”

Cablevision workers also make at least one-third less than Verizon workers represented by CWA, according to the union.

It also noted that outgoing COO Tom Rutledge, among the highest paid executives in the nation, made $28 million in 2010, about twice the combined pay of the 282 technicians in Brooklyn. Rutledge’s $28 million was over 600 times the average technician’s pay, the union said.

The union also said Cablevision compelled workers to attend anti-union “captive audience” meetings and pressured workers to oppose the union in one-on-one meetings with managers.

Only 2 to 4 percent of eligible cable TV workers are members of unions, compared to 90 percent of the traditional telecommunications industry, the union said.

“Cablevision’s owners – the Dolans – have successfully negotiated contracts with unions at Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden,” Local 1109 Executive Vice President Chris Calabrese said. “We look forward to negotiating with them a fair contract for Cablevision workers.”

Perhaps, after he has addressed his employees’ concerns, Mr. Dolan can turn his attention to the concerns of Cablevision customers. It’s only because there’s no cable competition on Long Island that subscribers are in a “take it or leave it” position, unless they want to go to Verizon for a phone-based communications package.

My wife was a salesperson with Cablevision. Every time she beat her quota, which she often did, the supervisor would change the formula, lowering the compensation.

Whenever management acts in an arbitrary and capricios manner, they invite the prospect of dealing with a union. Now they have a union and I submit that Cablevision has nothing to fear. The approach to dealing with employees has to be fair, an if it is, there could be very good realtions with the union.

Many years ago I was an elected official in CWA and I can tell you that we were very mindful of the profitability of th company when we negotiated. It serves no one if you put your employer out of business.

About the Author

Claude Solnik covers healthcare, finance, and technology/energy for Long Island Business News.